Stop Hiring for Roles. Start Solving Problems.
Katie Wagner has built recruiting engines inside some of the fastest-moving companies in tech, like Tarro, Doordash, and IKEA. And she’s currently a Principal of Growth By Design Talent’s Advisory group. She’s also involved in the talent communities and a speaker at industry events.
Her philosophy? Recruit like a product manager.
Katie sat down so we could unpack what it really means to practice problem-based recruiting—an approach that flips the traditional hiring process on its head. And a cool phrase she coined.
Instead of starting with a job description, Katie starts with the business problem.
What’s the outcome this hire needs to drive?
What’s the real pain point the team is trying to solve?
From there, everything flows—scorecards, interview rubrics, success metrics, and even the candidate experience.
Because when recruiting works backward from impact, every search becomes a product worth building.
In this episode, Katie shares:
• How to treat every role like a product and every search like a sprint
• Why intake calibration is the single most important step in hiring
• The hidden cost of skipping frameworks and rubrics
• How benchmarks like pass-through rates are about to be rewritten
• Why recruiters need to evolve into talent advisors
Katie’s pro tip: “Start with the problem and build backward. That’s how you hire the right person for the right reason.”
Episode 009 of Building the Talent Machine is out now 🔊
🎧 Listen on Spotify
▶️ Watch on YouTube
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